Intellisense (tm)

[Kevin Burton]

Ok.  I guess a definition of Intellisense/Syntax Expansion is in order.


There are various types and features.

1. Syntax Completion
2. Method/Parameter Suggestion.

Syntax Completion:  Involves completing obvious syntax construction.  

EX:  In C/C++ the "if" statement is an obvious syntax.  To form an if
statement you need to type:

if () {

}

With Syntax Completion all you need to type is:

if

Syntax Completion will then finish your construct to be:

if () {

}

The same can be applied to structure completion, for completion, while
completion, etc.

Method/Parameter Suggestion:  Given an object, the IDE will give you
available methods or parameters.

So for example if you have an object with 4 methods (methodOne,
methodTwo, methodThree, methodFour) and you use an accessor on that
object you will get its methods:

myObject->

will produce a list that contains the 4 methods.  At this point you can
either arrow down and tab to select a method or use the mouse.  Then it
will print out a list of parameters you must provide and optionally some
standard documentation about what these parameters mean.  If this method
is overloaded it will provide all methods.

I have used both, Code Completion in Visual SlickEdit, and
Method/Parameter Suggestion in Visual C++/Visual Cafe and JBuilder.  All
of them make my job much more productive.

Kevin


holle at almaden.ibm.com wrote:
> 
> Hmm, you lost me there. What is so magic about Intellisence ? I have never used
> a different editor (well maybe vi sometimes).
> If it has more than "just" expanding names, maybe we should have a discussion
> about what features we would like to have in our editors respectively our ide. I
> would like to have such a feature in kdevelop, so lets design a good one.
> 
> -holger
> 
> Jonas Nordin <jonas.nordin at cenacle.se> on 19/06/99 02:19:05
> 
> Please respond to kdevelop at fara3.cs.uni-potsdam.de
> 
> To:   kdevelop at fara3.cs.uni-potsdam.de
> cc:   kdevelop at fara3.cs.uni-potsdam.de (bcc: Holger Lehmann/Almaden/Contr/IBM)
> Subject:  Re: Intellisense (tm)
> 
> >Ohh, come on, give me a break:
> ><meta-x> global-set-key <enter> <ctrl-space> dabbrev-expand <enter>
> >and now you can use ctrl-space for this feature, too.
> >(global-set-key [ctrl-space] 'dabbrev-expand) ; for the .emacs file
> Sure I know. My point was that THAT functionality is NOT the same thing as
> Intellisence.